


Symbolism

by rowename



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Implied/Referenced Sex, Kara and Nia are dumbasses, Prophetic Dreams
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-09 21:50:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20516996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rowename/pseuds/rowename
Summary: Kara helps Nia work out what her mysterious dreams of the future mean. The hard part's figuring out what strap-ons are a metaphor of.





	Symbolism

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate title: Kara, no.

Nia had a lot of dreams. She’d been getting better at sorting out which were just regular dreams, and which gave her an idea of the future; that was only half the problem though. Knowing that something was telling her what was to come didn’t help her interpret it.

“So let’s go through it again,” Kara said, brow knitting in concentration. “Start from the first one. It’s… just us?”

“Yep,” Nia said. “And a restaurant; Chinese, I think. We were at a table together, eating, talking, nothing seemed strange.”

“What was the food?” Kara said. “That might represent something.”

“You had potstickers. A _lot_ of them,” Nia said, and pouted. “And you kept stealing mine.”

They looked at each other in mutual confusion, bewildered by the ambiguity of the dream. After a few seconds, Kara vanished for a second, a rush of air in her wake; she returned with two notepads and pens.

“You’ve been having a lot of dreams like that?” Kara said.

“Not exactly like that,” Nia said. Her cheeks coloured slightly. “But the two of us… yes.”

“It’s got to be something important then!” Kara said brightly. “Let’s work it out. So, what was next?”

Kara scribbled down notes on the last dream at super-speed, listing both the contents and circling a few key words. Meanwhile Nia pursed her lips; Kara glanced up at her, then faltered, distracted for a few seconds.

Nia gestured for her to wait, then got up. She had her own collection of dream-interpretation books stowed away in her room.

When she returned, she was carrying an unsteady, top-heavy pile of books; gratefully she put them down on the table, then collapsed back in her chair.

“Ok,” Nia said, slightly breathlessly. “I think the next one was the bracelet dream. We had matching bracelets, and you gave mine to me; everyone was there, watching. That one really confused me.”

“Bracelets mean something in Kryptonian culture,” Kara said slowly. She tilted her head. “It must mean…”

“Mm?” Nia said. She looked up from a book she’d just opened.

“It must mean we have to work together!” Kara said suddenly, beaming. “That’s the obvious meaning. We’ll need to be a team to get through… whatever’s coming. What’s next?”

* * *

Being Supergirl’s sister did mean a few strange texts every now and again, Alex reflected. Postponing a sisters’ lunch because of ‘Saving the world,’ was maybe not exactly unexpected, but still felt odd. So far as everyone else could tell, things were fine.

That, and it had been hours since Kara had been back at her apartment. The last she’d heard, she’d been with Nia, so that was a starting point.

Alex found her way there quickly. She knocked on the door; a slightly frazzled looking Kara answered.

“Alex!” her face brightened quickly. “Just in time! We need a third opinion. What do you think is the most likely symbolic interpretation of anal?”

Alex opened her mouth to speak, then promptly found all possible words dying in her throat. She blinked. Took a deep breath.

“Kara,” Alex said. “_What_.”

Kara was standing in the doorway. Behind her, Nia was sat on the floor; she was surrounded by a dozen different open books, glancing through one after another, before making notes on the back of a couch they’d apparently decided to use as a surface to stick countless sticky notes to.

Both looked a little tired, and both still seemed to be very focused on whatever task had caused all… this.

Alex took a rather cautious step inside. Kara was still looking at her avidly.

“We’ve been working on Nia’s dreams,” Kara said quickly. “There have been a lot lately, all with similar themes; we’ve tested it, and she’s had similar visions here too. Something important has to be happening.”

“And that involves anal?” Alex said faintly.

“Not _all_ of them,” Kara said. “But it’s one of the bits we really haven’t been able to work out. You know, the books from her family are missing out a lot of symbolism.”

Alex kept staring. Nia chewed her lower lip thoughtfully, still skimming the books.

“Start-” Alex began. She cleared her throat. “Start at the beginning.”

“So you can get the whole picture? Good thought,” Kara said. “Ok, so what we think are the dreams that will happen first are all about teaming up. The two of us, together, sometimes at a meal, or a movie, those ones are easy to interpret. And there’s one about a Kryptonian bonding ceremony, and another with a Naltorian ceremony, so it’s got to be about us working together. Those ones don’t quite fit though, they seem to happen later, but it’s the same basic idea. The two of us, tied together by something, probably because we need to work together.”

“Bonding’s a common theme,” Nia chimed in. “There’s a whole lot of bondage.”

“Oh, yeah,” Kara said. She glanced back to Nia, then back to Alex, flushed a little. “We disagree on those. They’re not the same kind of bonding. Us being bound together makes sense, but one of us being tied up while the other’s not feels like it means something new, but I’m not sure a headboard’s going to be that important to saving the world, so it could mean-”

Alex tried very, very hard to find the words.

“Oh! Getting off track,” Kara said. “So, the dreams say we have to work together, and there’s some spaceship imagery dotted throughout – Nia, see if you can find the sketches – so we think that means a powerful invader. We’ve ruled out Daxam, the Dominators are… possible, but not everything lines up. Between the ice cube dreams and the choking dreams, they might have ice or air based powers.”

“Or it’s about space,” Nia said suddenly, walking over. “Cold, airless… Just thought of that.”

“Oh! Note that down,” Kara said.

She beamed, and Nia handed a few notes to her before heading back to her little den, surrounded by notes and books. Alex blinked.

She opened her mouth to speak again, and again failed as Kara showed her the notes.

“We think their ship will look like this,” Kara said. She held up a scrawled outline of something that was definitely not a spaceship. “Images like it recur a lot. Could you see if the DEO has any records of anything like it?”

Alex opened and closed her mouth a few times.

“Kara,” she managed.

“Yes?” Kara said cheerily.

“That’s a vibrator.”

“Huh? No it’s not,” Kara said. “It’s a spaceship. You’ve got the basic rocket shape there, slightly rounder tip but still a ship, you’ve got the engine there… not completely sure what that bit is. Probably just a couple of guns.”

Alex made a slightly choked sound.

Meanwhile, Nia flicked through another book’s index only to give a frustrated sigh.

“Walker’s compendium doesn’t mention strap-ons either,” Nia called.

“Again?” Kara said. She sighed. “Alright, we’ll work on it. Actually! Alex, you can help, that dream has me wearing-”

“Stop!” Alex suddenly found it very easy to talk. “Stop! _Please_.”

Kara tilted her head innocently.

“You don’t want to help?” Kara said.

“I…” Alex said. Deep breath. “So, let me get this straight, if that has _any_ meaning here. Nia’s been having sex dreams about you?”

“Prophetic dreams!” Nia said. “I can tell the difference. Even if they’re similar to my normal dreams, they don’t _feel_ like, uh-”

Suddenly both Kara and Alex were looking at her. Nia blushed slightly. Then, carefully, lifted one of the many dream-interpreting books up in front of her face. It was upside down.

Slightly flustered, Kara turned back to Alex.

“S-symbolic dreams,” Kara said. “Yes.”

“Right,” Alex said sceptically. “Symbolic dreams of the two of you naked together.”

“Nudity means vulnerability!” Kara said. “That one _is_ in the books. And besides, it isn’t always just us. Cat was in one; she helped give both of us advice before we became heroes, it makes sense she’d be telling us what to do, and-”

Alex made a rather strangled noise.

“_Anyway_,” Alex interrupted. “You’ve spent the last few hours puzzling out why Nia’s having dreams of the future with the two of you going out on dates and doing some kinky stuff I _really_ don’t want to hear about?”

“Um,” Kara said. She paused. “Why, have you figured it out already?”

Alex briefly cast her eyes skywards. Statistically there probably was some alien race staring back down at Earth, and she looked up at them with all the silent _please tell me I was never like that_ she could muster.

Then she leaned closer and whispered something into Kara’s ear. Kara jumped.

“Huh? What? No, I- Uh, we would- no, uh, it’s- I- um, that- it’s not- she and- no, it can’t-” Kara began. She turned back, glimpsed Nia, and resumed stammering again. 

Alex suppressed the urged to turn around and start banging her head on the wall.

It was a good minute of looking back and forth before a slightly flushed Kara actually succeeded in getting a coherent sentence out.

“You really think…” Kara said.

“Mm hmm,” Alex said.

“Really?” Kara said.

“Kara,” Alex said, emphasizing each syllable. “This is coming from the woman who didn’t realise she was gay until after she’d asked Maggie out. You are _oblivious_.”

There was another, slightly longer pause. Kara glanced back at Nia, and squeaked as they made eye contact.

“Alright,” Kara said. She dropped her voice to a hasty, hushed, serious whisper. “But if we get invaded by rabbit spaceships in the next few months…”

“I’ll take full responsibility,” Alex said.

Kara grinned happily. She bounced back away from the door, kneeling on a small patch of floor visible in amongst the notes, and murmured something to Nia. Nia managed a few minutes of stammering that almost put Kara’s to shame; then, as Kara was about to move away, Nia promptly grabbed her head and pulled her close to kiss her.

Alex rolled her eyes. If the dreams were anything to go by, that was probably her cue to leave.


End file.
